The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and system for processing images captured by monitoring cameras, and a recording medium for programs therefore, and more particularly, to an image processing apparatus and system for processing part or entirety of images for protecting individuals' privacies, and a recording medium for storing programs therefore.
In a multi-camera monitoring system represented by monitoring of suspicious persons and person flow measurements in stores, monitor images are typically sent to a centralized management center through a network for monitoring by guards in real time and for recording and storage of the images on a video tape and a hard disk recorder (hereinafter called the “HDR”). The guards rely on such monitor images to monitor a store for a suspicious person who stays at the same location in the store for a long time, or suspicious persons who stay at a plurality of locations in the store for a long time, and rush a guard on patrol to an area under monitoring, if necessary, to ensure the security in the area under monitoring. However, if these monitor images leak out of an enterprise, the enterprise has the risk of lower creditability and reparation problem, so that individuals' privacies associated with the right of portrait must be protected in such monitor images as well.
For addressing the foregoing problem, JP-A-2004-62560 entitled “Face Matching Apparatus and Face Matching Method” (OMRON Corporation) proposes means for protecting person's privacy by matching previously registered face images with face images in inputted monitor images to tessellate face areas within the monitor images if no match is found.
Also, JP-A-2003-242486 entitled “Personal Attribute Estimating Apparatus” (Softpia Japan Foundation) proposes means for estimating attributes such as sex, age and the like of persons, the faces of which appear in an inputted monitor image. This means matches features in faces of persons manually classified and registered beforehand according to the attributes with the features of face images within an inputted monitored image to detect face areas in the inputted image, and estimate the attributes of the face images such as sex and age.